Solar energy for air conditioning of an office building in a case study: Techno-economic feasibility assessment

Abstract

Global electricity consumption is continuing to grow at a faster pace over the past few years. Electricity is used most often in buildings and in the growing demand for appliances and air conditioners. Basic strategies to minimize energy consumption include implementing energy efficiency measures and adopting renewable energy. Photovoltaics in particular has received considerable attention. Thus, this paper presents the detailed techno-economic feasibility analysis and environmental utility of a solar PV powered air conditioner system for an office building. The design, simulation and optimization of the system were performed using HOMER software. The system performance analysis was performed using various criteria such as Total Net Present Cost (TNPC), Cost of Energy (CoE), Renewable Fraction (RF) and CO2 emission analysis as objective functions. Energy purchased from the grid, energy sales, net energy purchases, and grid interactions were also analyzed. The simulation results reveal that the values of TNPC, CoE and RF are 2277.61 $, 0.0655 $/kWh and 79.2%, respectively. The total system generation is estimated to be 2875 kWh, of which 80.5% (2315 kWh) comes from PV and 19.5% from the grid. The system reports a grid energy purchase, energy sales and net energy purchase of 559 kWh, 1094 kWh and −534.11 kWh, respectively. The air conditioner's energy demand is fully met at 100%, records 0% unmet load and capacity shortage, and an excess energy of 73.5 kWh. The total annual CO2 emission mitigated is 1459.548 kg, a savings of 36488.7 kg (40.22 tons) is achieved over the system project lifetime.